Newly-Announced Endodontic Program Will Increase Access to Root Canal Treatment in Developing Nations

Saturday, June 4th, 2016 - NewsMaker

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA--(Marketwired
- Jun 3, 2016) - Dentsply Sirona announced today a new initiative to
bring Root Canal Treatment (RCT) to developing nations. The program, called
Project 32, has been created to increase access to endodontic care through
training and technology. Doctors in these regions often can't access the tools
necessary to save the patients' natural teeth. Through a unique
product-solution, that incorporates hands-on training, Project 32 aims to bring
awareness that "every tooth matters" for the long-term health of
patients worldwide.

The program has a planned launch of early 2017 and will be released
in select regions of Latin America.

Project 32, a program of Dentsply Sirona Endodontics, was announced
tonight during a reception preceding the 10th World Endodontic Congress. Project
32 was developed to remove the barriers to endodontic care in more regions
where tooth extraction is the current practice for resolving nerve damage,
infection and decay.

An endodontic treatment is preferable to extraction for
numerous health reasons; scientific research shows connectivity between tooth
loss and malnutrition, obesity, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis,
pulmonary disease and cancer.1 To an arguably lesser degree, tooth
loss has implications to social status and self-esteem.2

Project 32 aims to increase access sustainably by
incorporating comprehensive procedural certification training for local clinicians.
This allows communities to provide RCT to their citizens indefinitely; the
certification is provided at no additional charge to communities participating
in Project 32.

The single-use kit includes the Glide Path, Shaping, and
Obturation tools that can all be utilized in one visit. Although not included,
a sealer is recommended for use after obturation.

"The project team worked to create a solution to
numerous access barriers," said Dominique Legros, group vice president,
endodontics at Dentsply Sirona. "Providing all necessary tools in one
package, incorporating training, and reducing overhead costs are three
preliminary obstacles that Project 32 alleviates."

Project 32 will be made available to developing
nations through government programs. The single-treatment kits are available at
a lower cost than traditional packaging for the same tools, but will only be
able to be purchased by the government health organizations. The endodontic
treatment kits are preferable to the public health entities because of
portability, and ease of storage and disposal. Each individual kit is sterile
and ready to use.

Background

Project 32 is an extension of the work conducted
over the past years by Professor Manoel Eduardo de Lima Machado. Machado
brought RCT to the Amazon Region beginning in 2010 through Projeto Amazonas, a
partnership addressing oral and health care needs in the Amazon Region.
Machado, who is an associate professor at the School of Dentistry at the
University of Sao Paolo in Brazil (DDS, MDSc, PhD) aimed to decrease the number
of extractions and to evaluate the performance of an endodontic protocol in
adverse situations.

Due to the difficult economic circumstances, absence or
very little contact with the government, and the particularly challenging issues
people living in the Amazon Region are excluded from basic public services,
including dental care. As a result, they tend to undergo tooth extractions
instead of endodontic treatments. In order to increase quality of life, student
volunteers and professionals left Sao Paulo with endodontic materials to
perform root canals procedures. The project was educational not only in
enabling these young specialists to perform life-enhancing treatment, but also
to experience cultural and social diversity.

After extensive empirical research and tests, which
observed the cutting, strength, care and durability of an array of endodontic
instruments, the professors and graduate students selected the WAVEONE®
GOLD solution, because it is easy to use and efficient. These criteria proved
crucial, since the root canal treatments are performed on a significant number
of patients and performed in testing situations. The importance of selecting
the simplest endodontic treatment was echoed by Machado:

"The use of simple and efficient technology can make
endodontic treatment easy to perform. Performing these operations in
unfavorable environments allows us to broaden our social range so we'll be able
to treat almost anyone in need, regardless of their environment. In short, if you
can accomplish it here in The Amazon, you can do it everywhere."

1 David A. Felton, DDS, MS, FACP. Complete Edentulism and
Comorbid Diseases: An Update. Journal of Prosthodontics 25 (2016) 5-20 C _ 2015
by the American College of Prosthodontists.

2 Özhayat EB. Influence of self-esteem and negative affectivity
on oral health-related quality of life in patients with partial tooth loss.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2013;41:466-472.

ABOUT DENTSPLY SIRONA:Dentsply Sirona is the world's largest manufacturer of professional dental
products and technologies, with a 130-year history of innovation and service to
the dental industry and patients worldwide. Dentsply Sirona develops,
manufactures, and markets a comprehensive solutions offering including dental
and oral health products as well as other consumable medical devices under a
strong portfolio of world class brands. As The Dental Solutions Company(tm),
Dentsply Sirona's products provide innovative, high-quality and effective
solutions to advance patient care and deliver better, safer and faster dentistry.
Dentsply Sirona's global headquarters is located in York, Pennsylvania, and the
international headquarters is based in Salzburg, Austria. The company's shares
are listed in the United States on NASDAQ under the symbol XRAY. Visit www.dentsplysirona.com
for more information about Dentsply Sirona and its products.

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